Andy Large is a former councillor looking to get back into politics. He is standing as a candidate at the Alsager Town Council election on Thursday, but for a different party to the one he previously represented.
Andy Large, 50, is looking to ‘have another go’ at politics as he aims to be victorious in the Alsager Town Council East Ward election. This time around he is standing as a candidate for Reform UK, which claims to be the fastest growing political party in the United Kingdom. In the past he served as a member of the Conservative Party.
While Mr Large’s main occupation is owning a business in Crewe, he has long had a passion for politics and a mouth cancer diagnosis in 2001 was not enough to stop the defiant entrepreneur from serving as a councillor until 2007.
Taxes going up, freedom going down and the increasing encroachment of the state are reasons Large has given for his decision to return to the political arena after 18 years of absence.
Uncontrolled immigration is another of Large’s concerns and he believes voters share his frustrations, causing many former supporters of Conservative and Labour to switch their allegiances to Reform.
“There’s definitely a lot of consternation about the way around a million immigrants are coming every year, probably five to seven per cent of those illegal,” Large says. “They’re often from countries that I wouldn’t say are culturally and politically aligned with the UK. That is changing the fabric of our society in lots and lots of different ways.
“I think a lot of people would be happy with much smaller numbers,” he continues. If you’re doing 15 to 20,000 a year, that number can be integrated. Our culture could move on without having an earthquake under it. That’s why it’s reaching into the Labour vote [as well as Conservative], because there’s a lot of individuals who are being impacted in different ways.”
Large’s leanings to the political right continue in relation to local issues. He does not believe in man made climate change, describing the science as ‘total nonsense’ and he has criticised Alsager Town Council for wasting money on ‘woke and vanity projects’.
One example Large has given is the council’s £1000 donation to the town’s pride parade, an annual event which began in 2021. He has referred to the process as the council taking money from a pocket on one side and giving it to a chosen interest on the other.
Alsager’s deputy mayor and town councillor Michael Unett is a keen supporter of the event, saying it adds to the ‘vibrant community spirit’ in the town. Large, however, does not share the viewpoint of the Labour Party member he could soon be sitting alongside at council meetings.
“I don’t want to fund pride parades,” Large exclaims. “Why do I want parades down the street as a lascivious act and people celebrating things that I think are, well, some of the time, frankly, grooming?
“I don’t have any issue with people doing what they wish to do as long as it’s legal, behind closed doors,” he continues. “But I think there’s a big difference between banging drums down the street and wearing bondage view and all the kinds of things that are usually associated with pride parades, which I think is fairly debauched with conducting yourself in public.
“There’s lots of people who think this is not appropriate for children, for the public space. As I say at home, knock yourself out, I don’t mind what people get up to. But then we not only tolerate it, which is questionable in my view, but we actually encourage it. We send them money. What! No, I don’t agree with that at all,” Large says.
Alsager Town Council is forecast to lose nearly £700,000 in precepts in the upcoming financial year, the amount of costs incurred which must be funded by the taxpayer.
Large, who is in favour of decreasing the council’s spending and lowering taxes, says the council’s spending is ‘outrageous’, while claiming it has given out £50,000 in grants. He has branded its activities as ‘legalised theft’ and ‘communism,’ repeating his view that the council is picking people’s pockets to donate to the causes of a few people.
“100 million people in the 20th century died at the hands of communism and yet we do it all again in 2025. I don’t get it,” he says.
Reducing funding for other community events is another way Large supports cutting costs. As well as this, he believes the council should not fund both Alsager Civic and the Alsager Institute, venues used for public occasions and private hire.
“I think quite a lot of money goes to things like Christmas lights,” he says. “Again, I don’t have an issue with Christmas lights, but I think they need to be funded by the businesses of the town.
“Once you start to scratch the surface, there is a whole swathe of things I don’t believe warrant the involvement of the town council.” He continued, “the town council could be involved in providing public toilets, probably directing some floral displays, just real basic stuff, but I think the beam is going way beyond that stuff.”
Large’s stance on council spending is in contrast to June Buckley of the Liberal Democrats, who is also competing in Thursday’s election. She has been vocal in support of council spending on community events and has even volunteered at the annual Alsager Music Festival for the past two years.
Voicing his disagreements, Large has accused the Liberal Democrats of failing to support freedom and low taxation, two of his core policies. “If you want a massive state reaching into your lives, controlling a lot of what you do, taking a lot of your money and having somebody else making decisions about what your money gets spent on it’s definitely best to vote Liberal Democrat,” Large says.
“Alternatively, if you value freedom, you don’t like the big state, you don’t like the kind of bureaucracy you know. You don’t like the kind of lockdown measures we have in covid, all of them directed by central planners. If you don’t like that kind of stuff, I’m your candidate. Absolutely stark difference!”
Large has promised not to be a busybody in people’s lives. He takes no issue with other groups, or even the town council organising community activities, but he has a problem when the costs are left at the doors of local residents.
“I’m kind of against do-goodery,” Large says. “I just want a small, low profile state doing the basics and then getting out of the way and allowing business and individuals to get on with their lives.
“I think the Liberal Democrats can’t stand that because it doesn’t give them the role of what they thrive on, which is poking their noses into people’s lives, getting involved in lots of things that they shouldn’t and once again, it might tolerate that if it didn’t cost. He continues, “I might tolerate that if it didn’t cost, but it’s a lot of money. I don’t want that.”
Large has been clear he believes council taxes need lowering. It is not enough to merely spend people’s money in the right areas and he has questioned whether any ‘central planning bureaucrat is actually able to do this.
“I think it’s impossible once you set up an incentive structure that says some guy sitting in a town hall somewhere is going to be in charge of a whole load of money that they didn’t earn, and really nothing happens if they misspend it or not or not,” he says.
“You know, they just carry on. They’ve still got a guaranteed pension, their wage still comes in. These are terrible incentive structures, so you have to stop that kind of incentive structure, and at the same time, there’s all that being bad.
Another issue for Large is the private sector being deprived of spending power. In his opinion, businesses could invest to provide goods and services for local people, which by definition people want because they are spending money on them.
“They’re voting with their wallet, the most powerful voting machine you’ve ever seen,” he says. “But people can’t do that if all the money is being sucked up by the state.”
Ahead of the election, Large feels there is a good appetite for Reform in Alsager. Having been out on the doorsteps of local residents, he feels there is a good amount of support, despite facing some harsh critics. While some have cried out for him to get out of the town and branded him a ‘racist’, others have welcomed him with open arms and even offered to display posters.
“I think there’s certainly a good amount of support,” he says. “Is it enough? I don’t know, we’ll find out soon.”
The Alsager East Ward election takes place from 7am until 10pm on Thursday, March 27. Residents in the electoral area can cast a single vote at Alsager Civic on Lawton Road. The next day one of Large, Buckley or independent candidate Brian Lomas will be named as the latest addition to Alsager Town Council.
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